Skip to content
CMHC Home Canada Mortgage
and Housing Corporation
  • Sign In or Register
  • Français
  • MENU
MENU
× Français
  • Home
  • Professionals
    • Project funding and mortgage financing
      • Funding programs
        • Affordable Housing Fund
        • Affordable Housing Innovation Fund
        • Apartment Construction Loan Program
        • Canada Greener Affordable Housing
        • Community (social) housing
        • Federal Lands Initiative
        • Funding for Indigenous housing
        • Housing Supply Challenge
        • Innovation and research
        • National Housing Strategy Project Profiles
        • Rapid Housing Initiative
      • Mortgage Loan Insurance Products
        • Homeowner and Small Rental Mortgage Loan Insurance
          • CMHC Purchase
          • CMHC Improvement
          • CMHC Income Property
          • CMHC Refinance
          • CMHC Newcomers
          • CMHC Self-Employed
          • CMHC Portability
          • Eco Products for Lenders
        • Multi-Unit and Rental Housing
          • MLI Select
        • Default, claims and properties for sale
        • Underwriting centre
        • emili
        • NHA approved lenders
        • Calculating GDS / TDS
        • How to recognize and report mortgage fraud
        • Contact mortgage loan insurance
        • Insured Mortgage Purchase Program (IMPP)
      • Securitization
        • NHA Mortgage Backed Securities
        • Canada Mortgage Bonds
        • Canadian registered covered bonds
        • Blockchain in the housing industry
    • Housing markets, data and research
      • CMHC Reports Calendar
      • Housing markets
        • Housing market reports
        • Mortgage market and consumer reports
        • Fall 2024 Rental Market Report
      • Housing research
        • Consultations
          • Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act
            • Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act – Frequently asked questions
        • Housing research reports
        • Housing surveys
          • Mortgage consumer surveys
        • Research awards and scholarships
        • Understanding core housing need
        • Collaborative Housing Research Network
      • Housing data
        • Data tables
          • Household characteristics data
          • Housing market data
          • Mortgage and debt data
          • Rental market data
        • Housing market information portal
        • Residential Mortgage Industry Data Dashboard
        • CMHC licence agreement for the use of data
        • Housing Knowledge Centre
    • Industry innovation and leadership
      • Housing innovation
      • Our Partners
        • Partnerships
        • Federal, Provincial and Territorial Forum on Housing
      • Industry collaboration
        • Expert Community on Housing (ECoH)
      • Industry expertise
        • Affordable housing
        • Indigenous housing
        • Senior housing
        • Accessible and adaptable housing
        • Developing sustainable housing
        • Resources for mortgage professionals
        • CMHC newsletters
    • Events and speakers
      • Conferences
        • 2024 National Housing Conference
          • About
          • National Housing Conference - Agenda
          • Location
          • InnoZone
          • Details for participants
      • Speakers’ bureau
        • Kevin Hughes
  • Consumers
    • Buying a home
      • Homebuying calculators
        • Mortgage calculator
        • Affordability calculator
        • Debt service calculator
      • Buying guides
        • Homebuying step by step
        • CMHC's condominium buyer's guide
      • Mortgage loan insurance for consumers
        • What is CMHC mortgage loan insurance?
        • Do I qualify for mortgage loan insurance?
        • CMHC mortgage loan insurance costs
        • CMHC's Eco Products
          • CMHC’s Eco Improvement
          • CMHC Eco Plus
        • CMHC — home renovation financing options
        • FAQs — mortgage loan insurance
      • Incentives for homebuyers
      • Newcomers
      • The First-Time Home Buyer Incentive
    • Owning a home
      • Manage your mortgage
        • Mortgage fraud
        • Mortgage planning tips
        • Plan and manage your mortgage
        • Your credit report
        • Your home value
      • Aging in place
        • Housing options for Seniors
        • Housing and finance tips
        • Mortgage financing options for people 55+
        • Preventing fraud and financial abuse
    • Renting a home
      • I want to rent
        • Things to consider before renting
        • Types of housing for rent in Canada
        • Finding or advertising a rental property
        • Visiting the rental property
        • Lease and rental agreements
        • Signing the lease
        • Credit checks and bad credit
        • Rental payments and deposits
        • Roommates and pets
      • I am renting
        • Moving day
        • Landlord/Tenant responsibilities
        • Inspections
        • Maintenance and repairs
        • Complaints and evictions
        • Rent increases
        • When you can't pay rent
        • Renewing or terminating the lease
        • Moving out
      • One-Time Top-Up to the Canada Housing Benefit
      • COVID‑19: eviction bans and suspensions to support renters
  • About CMHC
    • CMHC’s goals, values and commitment to housing
    • Discover Life at CMHC
    • Management and governance
      • Speakers’ bureau
      • CMHC's Annual Public Meeting
      • CMHC’s board of directors and committees
      • Our management committee
      • Pension governance
        • Pension overview
        • Key roles and responsibilities
        • Annual reports
    • Corporate reporting
      • CMHC’s 2023 Annual Report
      • Program evaluation
      • Quarterly financial reports
      • Joint auditors special examination report to CMHC board 2018
      • CMHC’s Insured Mortgage Deferral
      • Corporate Plan Summary
      • Transparency
        • Access to information and privacy protection
        • Accessibility at CMHC
        • Accessibility feedback process
        • Briefing materials
        • Procurement
          • Vendor Diversity Program
        • Travel, hospitality and conference expenditures
    • Contact us
      • Contact mortgage loan insurance
      • Regional offices
      • Granville lsland
      • Indigenous and the North Housing Solutions
      • National office
      • Holiday service hours
  • Media Newsroom
  • National Housing Strategy
    • What is the strategy?
      • About the initiatives
      • How to apply
      • Help and resources
      • Priority areas for action
      • The National Housing Strategy Glossary of Common Terms
      • The Strategy in Action
    • Federal/Provincial/Territorial housing agreements
    • Other funding and financing opportunities
  • The Housing Observer
  • Canada’s Housing Podcast
  • Careers
  • Housing Knowledge Centre
 
  • Home
  • Professionals
  • Project funding and mortgage financing
  • Funding programs
  • All funding opportunities
  • Housing Research Awards
  • Save
  • Share
National Housing Strategy

Housing Research Awards

Apply for funding that recognizes your innovative and impactful housing research, training, knowledge mobilization and outreach.

Save Icon

SAVE TO MY FOLDER

Housing Research Awards

SAVE
Close this Window   |   Manage my Folder
Save Icon

SAVE TO MY FOLDER

Housing Research Awards

Done Done!
Close this Window   |   Manage my Folder
Share icon

Share via

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
  • print
  • CopyLink

SuccessCopyLinkVersionLink copied

Share icon

Share via

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
  • print
  • CopyLink

SuccessCopyLinkVersionLink copied

share icon

Mail-blue Share via Email

Did You Know?

You can include an email signature?

Register | Sign In

×
Google Captcha Loader
share icon

Mail-blue Share via Email

Done Done!
Close this window

The 2025 application window will open this summer. 

Stay in the loop! Sign up for CMHC Housing Updates to be notified when applications open and for the latest housing news.  

The Housing Research Awards celebrate research excellence and provide funding to support exceptional work that advances Canada’s National Housing Strategy.

This initiative focuses on completed or near completed research activities, recognizing impactful and innovative Canadian housing research, research training, knowledge mobilization and outreach.

The awards play a crucial role in building and sustaining Canada’s culture of research-based housing knowledge. They span key fields such as social sciences, humanities, health and technology, ensuring a broad and inclusive approach to housing research.

This program supports housing research excellence and is administered by CMHC on behalf of the Government of Canada.




Learn About The 3 Awards:


  • CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research
    $25,000

  • Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence
    $12,500

  • Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action
    $12,500

Meet the Innovators Shaping the Future of Housing in Canada

2024 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research

Recipient: Daniel Dicaire, Ottawa Community Housing Corporation

Project: Sustainable Affordable Housing Total Cost of Building Ownership Analysis

The Ottawa Community Housing research team, Daniel Dicaire and research partners Gordon Downes, Dylan Bennett, Arne Suraga and Rehanna Devraj-Kizuk, used a template 20-storey building and examined 5 different energy performance scenarios, ranging from built to code or above, to determine which one is more the most economical and sustainable approach in the long term. They used comprehensive energy and economic modelling to examine and compare the assessed value of factors such as energy performance, capital, maintenance and repair and as well as operating costs. With accurate estimates, including initial construction cost and annual operating costs for each scenario over the next 60 years, the team was able to compare the total cost of building ownership for each of the scenarios on equal footing. This allowed them to show which option is more economical and sustainable over the long term. 


2024 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence

Recipient: Keagan Rankin, University of Toronto

Project: Providing Affordable Housing Within Climate Limits: A Model of Sustainable Future Growth

Keagan Rankin and research partner Shoshanna Saxe set out to answer the question: “How can Canada build the housing it needs while staying within environmental sustainability limits?” They note that while housing supply must increase by 3.5 million additional units by 2030 to restore affordability, as indicated by CMHC. However, they also point out that even current volumes of construction will make it challenging for Canada to meet its sustainability goals. The team gathered extensive data and created a new modelling technique. This technique simulated the construction of future neighbourhoods to determine how 3.5 million additional homes could be built by 2030 while staying within acceptable climate limits.


2024 Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action

Recipient: James Dunn, McMaster University

Project: The City of Hamilton's Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap

In June 2022, the City of Hamilton and the Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative began a research-to-action initiative to develop an evidence-based strategic implementation framework to guide the city’s affordable housing efforts. The project was led by James Dunn of McMaster University, with research partners Steve Pomeroy of Canadian Housing Evidence Collaborative and a team from the City of Hamilton. Their Housing Sustainability and Investment Roadmap takes a cross-sectoral approach to address housing issues in Hamilton, across 4 pillars:

  • new construction
  • acquisition
  • preservation
  • housing-based supports such help for those facing mental health challenges

It was adopted by Hamilton City Council in April 2023 and implementation is ongoing, leading to a significant impact in the city.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Transcript

(Music fades in.)

(Visual: Government of Canada logo, National Housing Strategy and CMHC logo fade in together.)

(Visual: Imagery from across Canada that features different housing projects, construction sites and the three award recipients shaking hands with the CMHC Acting CEO. Graphics animate on-screen reading “Housing Research Awards: Recognizes research excellence and provides funding to support exceptional work. [Housing Research Awards] Acknowledges impactful and innovative Canadian housing research, research training, knowledge mobilization and outreach activities.)

(Visual: Graphic animates on-screen that reads “Winner: CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research. A small transition animation in the graphic now reads “Congratulations Michael Piper” with a slow motion visual of Michael crossing his arms and looking into camera.)

(Visual: Michael Piper is sitting in a busy room speaking directly to camera.)

00:00:20

MICHAEL: I'm Michael Piper. I'm an assistant professor of urban design and architecture at the University of Toronto, and I'm co-lead of the Rehousing Initiative, along with my collaborators, Janna Levitt and Samantha Eby.

(Visual: Graphic animates on-screen that reads “Winner: Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action. A small transition animation in the graphic now reads “Congratulations BC Society of Transition Houses” with a slow motion visual of Ghazaleh crossing her arms and looking into camera.)

00:00:32

GHAZALEH: I'm Ghazaleh Akbarnejad and I worked as the Women's Center's housing design project coordinator at the BC Society of Transition Houses for over two years.

(Visual: Graphic animates on-screen that reads “Winner: Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence. A small transition animation in the graphic now reads “Congratulations DR. Alexandra Flynn” with a slow motion visual of DR. Flynn crossing her arms and looking into camera.)

(Visual: DR. Alexandra Flynn is sitting in a busy room speaking directly to camera.)

 

00:00:41

DR. FLYNN: My name is Alexandra Flynn and I'm a law professor at UBC. I'm also the director of the Housing Assessment Resource Tools Project. So we've been able to provide community based information about housing need and about public lands across the country, and that has led to real change.

(Visual: DR. Alexandra Flynn is on stage at the National Housing Conference shaking hands with CEO Michel Tremblay.)

00:00:59

GHAZALEH: The women centered housing design project focuses on finding housing design solutions that are trauma and violence informed to ensure safer, more suitable, accessible and permanent housing for women and their children or dependants with experiences of violence.

(Visual: Ghazaleh is on stage at the National Housing Conference speaking to the crowd about BC Society initiatives.)

00:01:15

MICHAEL: The Rehousing Research Initiative focuses on converting single family homes into multi-unit housing. As architects, we use practical design knowledge and easy to understand graphics to communicate complex ideas to nonprofessional housing creators. These might be homeowners, prospective homeowners, non-profits, folks we call citizen developers.

(Visual: Michael is on stage at the National Housing Conference speaking to the crowd about the Rehousing Initiative.)

00:01:35

GHAZALEH: To me, housing research is one of the pivotal pillars of finding innovative solutions for solving the housing crisis that we are currently dealing with.

00:01:44

MICHAEL: Housing represents a kind of unique intersection between technical knowledge, and human engagement, which is, I think, key for like, good quality research.

00:01:53

DR. FLYNN: I want my children to be able to leave home and get an apartment or a house of their own one day. I want that for every kid, and I want that for all Canadians.

(Visual: All the award winners gather together for a picture on stage at the National Housing Conference. The CMHC chevron wipes on-screen to reveal the Government of Canada logo, National Housing Strategy and CMHC logo together.)

(Music fades out.)

Learn more about past award winners

2023 award recipients 

  • 2023 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
    ReHousing the Yellowbelt: Rezoning Single-Family Homes as Multiplex Housing: Michael Piper from the University of Toronto and his team’s research focuses on transforming single-detached dwellings to multiplexes in Toronto’s residential neighbourhoods.
  • 2023 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Housing Assessment Resource Tools (HART) Project: Alexandra Flynn from the University of British Columbia and her team developed this tool which provides critical data and mapping tools for governments and housing providers.
  • 2023 Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action:
    Practical Applications of a Women-Centred Approach to Housing Design: Tanyss Knowles and her team from the BC Society of Transition Houses developed an innovative design approach to housing that focuses on the needs of low-income women and their children fleeing violence. 

2022 award recipients

  • 2022 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
    Climate change and housing loss: Dr. Julia Woodhall-Melnik and team’s research focuses on climate change and housing loss from the 2018 – 2019 flooding of the Wolastoq River in New Brunswick.
  • 2022 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Making permanent supportive housing work for vulnerable populations: Dr. Abe Oudshoorn’s research explores making permanent supportive housing work for vulnerable populations.

2021 award recipients

  • 2021 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
    Improving housing stability among Indigenous residents at Horizon Housing: Shedding light on what might reduce the rate of negative exits among Indigenous residents at Horizon Housing.
  • 2021 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Who Does the Welfare State Support, and How? Housing for Moderate-Income Households in Three Canadian Provinces, 1975–2015: Closer Targeting of Vulnerable Citizens.
  • 2021 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Skookum Housing Solutions: Innovative Indigenous Research in Surrey, BC: Taking a look at the rapidly changing urban Indigenous population in Surrey to address systemic housing inequalities.
  • 2021 Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action:
    K’asho Got’ı̨nę House Assessment Research Project: Exploring the conditions of privately-owned homes in Fort Good Hope as well as the impact of repair and maintenance.

2020 award recipients

  • 2020 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
    The Impact of Short-term Rentals on Canadian Housing Using data collection and analysis to investigate the effects of short-term rentals in Canada
  • 2020 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Step-by-Step Guide to Developing Affordable Housing A clear and easy-to-follow guide from the Alberta Rural Development Network
  • 2020 Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action:
    Step-by-Step Guide to Estimating Rural Homelessness Collecting data on homelessness and housing insecurity in rural and remote Canadian communities
  • 2020 Gold Roof Award for Knowledge to Action:
    Community Benefits of Supportive Housing A tool to address community questions about supportive housing for people experiencing homeslessness.

2019 award recipients

  • 2019 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Eliminating 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and young adult homelessness Understanding how Canada’s first 2SLGBTQIA+ transitional housing program Impacts outcomes for youth
  • 2019 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Metro Vancouver Transit‐Oriented Affordable Housing Study Studying the challenges and opportunities of developing affordable rental housing close to transit.
  • 2019 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
    Innovative solutions to affordable housing challenges Partnerships for Affordable Housing: Policy, Planning and Community Building.

2018 award recipients

  • 2018 CMHC President’s Medal for Outstanding Housing Research:
    SEKUWE (My House), Dene First Nation Views on Healthy Homes Using a ‘two-eyed seeing’ approach for housing and health creates culturally appropriate housing.
  • 2018 Gold Roof Award for Housing Research Excellence:
    Understanding Rental Housing in a Smaller Community Understand how poverty, abuse and addiction were identified as the main causes of homelessness.

Still have questions about the Housing Research Awards?

Phone: 1-800-668-2642
Email: nhs-research-awards@cmhc.ca

Was this page relevant to your needs?

Thank you for your feedback!

How Can We Help?

Suggest an Improvement

Report a Bug

How Can We Help?

Suggest an Improvement

Please share your suggestion.

Google Captcha Loader

How Can We Help?

Report a Bug

Please describe the problem.

Google Captcha Loader

Thank you. Your feedback has been submitted.

Date Published: March 3, 2025

By Topic

  • Professionals
    • Project funding and mortgage financing
    • Housing markets data and research
    • Industry innovation and leadership
    • Events and speakers
  • Consumers
    • Home buying
    • Owning a home
    • Renting a home

About Us

  • CMHC's Story
  • Management and Governance
  • Our Partners
  • Corporate Reporting
  • Contact Us
  • Careers

More

  • CMHC Newsletters
  • CMHC Library
  • Housing Observer
  • Media Newsroom
  • CMHC and Accessible Housing
  • CMHC on Twitter
  • CMHC on LinkedIn
  • CMHC on Facebook
  • CMHC on Instagram
  • CMHC on YouTube
Privacy Policy    |    Terms and Conditions    |    Transparency    |    Accessibility Plan    |    Accessibility Feedback     Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) ©2025 
Canada
loader icon